Area major leaguers range from solid to spectacular

Sunday

For many players, it’s an opportunity to rest and recharge their batteries away from the game while giving many wives and children their husbands and fathers back for the winter.

However, for a relatively select few, Sunday’s finales signal the end of one chapter while opening another with the start of the postseason.

And that rule even applies for a portion of Lake County’s contingent of major leaguers.

Heading into Sunday, at least two of the four local players in MLB are locked into the postseason and a third could join them.

Cleveland Indians’ shortstop Francisco Lindor, a Montverde Academy graduate, and Oakland Athletics catcher Jonathan Lucroy, a Umatilla grad, are in the playoffs with their teams. The Indians have won the American League Central Division for the third straight year and Oakland will face the New York Yankees on Wednesday in the AL wild card game.

An Oakland win against the Yankees would send the Athletics to the American League Division Series against Boston.

In the National League, Colorado will be in the playoffs as either the West champions or a wild card. Former Montverde Academy standout Noel Cuevas has gotten considerable playing time this season as an outfielder for the Rockies and could earn a spot on the playoff roster.

All told, four players with local connections — Lindor, Lucroy, Cuevas and Shane Greene — saw action in the big leagues this year. With the regular season coming to a close, here’s a look at the quartet of area players and how they performed this season.

Francisco Lindor

Simply put, Lindor has turned in another spectacular season and what has, for him at least, become routine.

The fourth-year shortstop entered the final weekend of the year with a .279 batting average to go along with 37 homers and 91 RBIs. He is among second in the American League with 127 runs scored.

Over the course of the season, Lindor won back-to-back AL Player of the Week honors and was named Player of the Month in May. On June 1, he was the fourth MLB player in history to hit two homers and two doubles in a game when he accomplished that feat against Minnesota.

Lindor played in at least 155 games for the third straight year and surpassed the 30 home run mark for the second-straight season. He has established career highs in home runs, RBIs, walks, stolen bases and runs scored.

From the first time he ever stepped out of the Cleveland dugout, Lindor has played with a smile on his face. Ironically, one of his nicknames is “Mr. Smile.”

Lindor has become, for many, the face of the Indians’ franchise and is one of the most popular players in the major leagues.

Less than four full seasons into his major league career, at the age of 24, Lindor sports a career batting average of .289, with 664 hits, 97 homers, 309 RBIs and 69 stolen bases. He has appeared in three All-Star games and helped his native Puerto Rico win a Silver Medal in the 2017 World Baseball Classic.

His ninth big-league season was not Jonathan Lucroy’s best in terms of offense, but the Oakland Athletics might not be a playoff team without having him on the roster.

Lucroy went into the weekend hitting .241 for the Athletics in his first season in the Bay Area, with four homers and 51 RBIs in 124 games.

But, Lucroy’s offensive numbers tell only part of the story. A veteran of more than 1,000 games in the major leagues, Lucroy is considered one of the better defensive catchers in the major leagues.

In more than 1,000 innings this year, he has committed only 10 errors and thrown out 30 percent of baserunner’s attempting to steal.

In his nine-year career in the big leagues, which began in Milwaukee before he was traded to Texas and then Colorado — he signed with Oakland as a free agent — Lindor has a .277 batting average with 100 homers and 509 RBIs.

Noel Cuevas

Noel Cuevas probably knows the flight schedule from Denver to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

That’s because he’s made multiple trips this season between Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, and the team’s Triple A affiliate.

Cuevas entered the final weekend of the regular season with a .234 batting average with two homers and 10 RBIs. He started the season with the Albuquerque Isotopes before joining the Rockies in late April.

He spent August in the minors before rejoining the Rockies in September for the playoff run.

In 44 games at Albuquerque, Cuevas hit .331 with five homers and 29 RBIs. He hit .312 with 15 homers and 79 RBIs in 128 games with the Isotopes in 2017.

Many insiders say it is unlikely that Cuevas will remain with the Rockies in the postseason, but manager Bud Black’s familiarity with him could be play a role when Black assembles his playoff roster.

Shane Greene

Shane Greene’s statistics tell a mixed tale of his fourth season with the Detroit Tigers.

The former East Ridge standout spent his first full season as the Tigers closer and went into the weekend with a 4-6 record to go along with 32 saves — fourth best in the American League.

His ERA was high for a closer (5.12) and he allowed more hits (68) than innings pitched (63 1/3), although he struck out (65) more than one batter per inning pitched. Greene’s opposing batting average (.268) and WHIP — walks and hits per innings pitched — were higher than he would’ve liked (1.37).

Greene had his best month in May with nine saves in 10 chances to go along with a 2.35 ERA.

He signed a one-year contract worth $1.95 million prior to the 2018 campaign and could become a free agent in the offseason.

In five seasons in the big leagues — Greene was a starter with the New York Yankees as a rookie in 2014 — Greene is 22-25 with 43 saves and a 4.89 ERA.

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